Coughing? Pop a chocolate
23/11/2004 14:02  - (SA)  

Chocolates cut down to size Smoking just got sweeter

London - An ingredient in chocolate may actually be a more effective cough medicine than traditional remedies, New Scientist reports.

Researchers gave 10 healthy volunteers tablets containing theobromine - a constituent of cocoa - codeine, or a placebo.

The volunteers were asked to inhale a gas containing capsaicin - a derivative of chilli peppers - which induces coughing and is used as an indicator to test the effectiveness of cough medicines.

It was discovered that theobromine is almost a third more effective in stopping persistent coughs compared to codeine.

Theobromine also appeared to have no unwanted side effects. This is not true of codeine, which is a narcotic and lists drowsiness and constipation among its negative effects.

Writing in the online Faseb Journal, researchers said theobromine works by suppressing vagus nerve activity, which is responsible for causing coughing.

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